“the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie. the cake is a lie—”

“Congraturation. This story is happy end. Thank you.”

How Mario Makes You a Better Player

This is Part 2 of a trilogy of videos by PBS Game/Show on the Super Mario platform games:

Right from the very get-go, basically the first screen of the game, everything in Super Mario Bros. level design has a reason and purpose for being the way it is, where it is, doing what it does, and why it does it (which you’ll learn a bit about by watching the video above):

See it now?

The tightly focused design continues throughout entire levels:

In fact, the quality of the level design is one of the [many] things that make the Mario platform games stand head and shoulders above so many other platform games:

Yes, even Super Mario Bros. 2, which was originally a different game called Doki Doki Panic (made by a whole other developer) that was updated with the Mario sprites and background tiles for the western market, because the real Super Mario Bros. 2 was deemed too difficult for the ‘mericans and ‘uropeans. And it kinda was. 😮

And that quality of level design continues to be a staple of the series, even in the most recent games:

Even when going 3D (be it full 3D or a sort of 3D/2.5D hybrid):

By playing Mario platformers, you are basically learning all the fundamentals of great platform game level design. And that’s a good enough reason for me to play them over and over and over—for research purposes, you see. 😉